When OpenAI released desktop versions of the ChatGPT app, it was clear that the goal was to encourage more users to include ChatGPT into their each day tasks. Now, latest updates to the Mac OS and Windows versions encourage users to remain in ChatGPT applications while performing most tasks.
Some ChatGPT users on Mac OS can now open third-party apps directly from the app. ChatGPT Plus and Teams subscribers – and ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users soon to follow – can access VS Code, Xcode, Terminal, and iTerm2 from a drop-down list.
This integration involves mind GitHub Copilot integration with coding platforms announced in October.
Alexander Embiricos, product manager for ChatGPT’s desktop team, said one of the commonest user behaviors the company saw was copying and pasting text or generating code using ChatGPT into other applications. Embiricos was CEO of Multi, a screen-sharing and collaboration startup acquired by OpenAI in June.
“We wanted to start integrating with [integrated development environments] IDE because we know that a lot of our customers are developers because we saw a lot of text material that was copying and pasting from applications to other platforms,” Embiricos said.
He added that OpenAI desired to focus on privacy when building the integration, so third-party applications will only be opened manually.
Users can start coding using ChatGPT and select VS Code from the app. Once you launch VS Code, it would open with the same code they were working on. Embiricos says that in theory, you may have multiple third-party apps open when using ChatGPT on your Mac.
Right now, third-party app integration is only available on Mac OS, but Embiricos says PC users will eventually get the feature as well. OpenAI also plans to extend the variety of applications in the future.
Your Windows PC is not left behind
The Windows PC version of the ChatGPT desktop app will now be available for download to all ChatGPT users, following a limited availability to subscribers. As its user base expands, OpenAI has updated its PC app with access to advanced voice mode and screenshot capabilities.
Embiricos said customers had been asking them for some time to make use of advanced voice mode on their desktop, so they desired to focus on this feature in the PC app. The screenshot feature may even reap the benefits of some specific features of Windows computers that may allow users to decide on which windows you would like to take a photo of.
“ChatGPT obviously understands what you’re describing, but if you add a photo to your chat, its responses will be richer, and we see a lot of users copy and paste photos into ChatGPT, so adding a screenshot option makes it easier,” Embiricos said.
Many of the features of the Mac OS desktop app may even be available on PCs, but Embiricos noted that the team is focused on expanding the app’s availability to PCs first.
Interfaces are the latest battlefield
Chat interfaces like ChatGPT have proven to be incredibly useful for a number of users, but before the desktop version got here along, people had to go to a website to generate text, code, or photos, and needed to submit chat responses to any application where they really they work with.
It’s no wonder that corporations like OpenAI wish to attract more of their customers by bringing their workflows closer to the interface.
GitHub made this possible through integration with VS Code and Xcode. Anthropic’s Claude, while not integrated with third-party applications, has created artifacts so that users don’t have to go elsewhere to see what the website they generated looks like. OpenAI followed in the footsteps of Canvas, which works similarly.
Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has just integrated its Q Developer AI assistant into the popular Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs as a built-in suggestion and code completion add-on, allowing you to focus on code snippets and type instructions directly into LLM without switching to a different screen.
Application integration is nothing latest when it involves software, as many corporations often collaborate to supply services wherever users are. For example, Slack includes apps from Zoom, Atlassian, Asana, and Google you can use in the chat window.